food noise is a lie: what your cravings are really telling you
You made it through breakfast with coffee and a piece of fruit. Lunch was a salad with a little chicken. You were busy all afternoon, so you didn’t think much about eating.
Then 8 PM rolls around.
You’re standing in front of the pantry, looking for something sweet. You have a little chocolate, then something crunchy, and suddenly you’re wondering why you can’t seem to stop thinking about food.
You were so good all day. What happened?
If this sounds familiar, I want you to consider something: what if your cravings aren’t the problem?
What if they’re telling you something useful about your nutrition, your daily routines, or the way you’ve learned to respond to stress?
This conversation matters for anyone trying to improve their relationship with food. It’s also especially relevant if you’re learning how to lose fat and keep muscle, because eating less isn’t automatically the same as eating appropriately for your body.
And with GLP-1 medications bringing more attention to the concept of food noise, I think it’s time we had a more nuanced conversation about what cravings actually mean.
what is food noise, and is it always a problem?
Food noise generally describes persistent, sometimes intrusive thoughts about food that can feel difficult to turn off.
For someone who’s spent years thinking constantly about their next meal, battling cravings, or feeling preoccupied with food, having those thoughts become quieter can be an enormous relief.
I don’t want to minimize that experience.
But we’ve started using the phrase food noise to describe almost any thought about eating, and I think that’s where things get confusing.
There are important differences between hunger, appetite, cravings, and food noise.
- Physical hunger is your body’s way of communicating a need for energy.
- Appetite describes your desire to eat, which can exist even when you aren’t physically hungry.
- Cravings are often more specific. You don’t necessarily want any food. You want the chocolate, chips, or particular pastry you’ve been thinking about.
- Food noise refers to persistent food-related thoughts that can become distracting or intrusive.
These experiences can overlap, but they’re not interchangeable.
Thinking about lunch doesn’t mean you have a problem. Wanting dessert doesn’t mean you’ve lost control. And experiencing a craving doesn’t automatically mean you need to practice more restraint.
Sometimes you need nourishment.
Sometimes you’re responding to a familiar routine.
Sometimes food represents comfort, pleasure, or a break from your day.
Those situations deserve different responses.
why cravings aren't always a willpower problem
One of the most common things I hear from women in nutrition coaching is that they need to get better at controlling themselves around food.
They believe that if they could ignore hunger, stop snacking, or say no to sweets more consistently, they’d finally see results.
But after years of working with women on their nutrition, I’ve found that the answer is often much more practical.
Sometimes their eating plan simply isn’t providing enough food.
And that’s an important consideration when you’re figuring out how to maintain muscle while losing weight.
Your body still needs protein, energy, essential fats, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients while you’re pursuing fat loss. Reducing calories doesn’t make those requirements disappear.
If you’re regularly exhausted, struggling through workouts, and experiencing intense cravings every evening, those are patterns worth investigating rather than automatically dismissing as poor discipline.
I find it helpful to look at three common drivers of cravings: physiological, schedule-driven, and environmental or emotional.
They’re not medical diagnoses, and you can experience more than one at a time. But they’re a useful starting point.
1. physiological cravings: are you eating enough?
Let’s start with the category I think women overlook most often.
For years, we’ve been encouraged to eat less.
Skip breakfast. Keep lunch light. Avoid snacks. Save your calories for dinner.
Eventually, it’s easy to start believing that tolerating hunger is proof you’re doing nutrition correctly.
But what happens when your body isn’t getting enough food?
You might notice stronger hunger, lower energy, more thoughts about eating, or increasingly intense cravings later in the day.
the evening cravings example
Imagine a woman who’s trying to lose fat.
Breakfast is coffee and a banana.
Lunch is a small salad with a little chicken and dressing on the side.
She works through the afternoon without a snack because she’s trying to be disciplined.
Dinner is her first substantial meal of the day.
By 8 PM, she’s back in the kitchen looking for something sweet or crunchy.
She tells herself she has no self-control.
But look at what happened before the craving.
She spent most of the day under-fueled.
The question isn’t necessarily how to make herself resist dessert. It’s whether her earlier meals were meeting her needs.
Not everyone who wants dessert is undereating, of course. You can eat adequately and still enjoy something sweet.
But when evening cravings are intense or persistent, it’s worth looking at your overall intake.
eating more appropriately, not just eating less
If you’re researching how to lose fat and keep muscle, I want you to move away from the idea that the smallest possible calorie intake is automatically the best strategy.
Your energy needs depend on your body size, activity level, goals, and other individual factors.
Someone who strength trains regularly, walks often, and manages a busy household may need considerably more food than she assumes.
A calorie deficit may be part of a fat-loss strategy, but consistently under-fueling yourself can make it harder to support training, recovery, and day-to-day energy.
This is also why strength training for fat loss can’t be considered separately from nutrition. You need enough nourishment to support the work you’re asking your body to do.
meal composition matters, too
Total food intake is one part of the picture. The composition of your meals matters as well.
Protein supports muscle tissue and recovery and contributes to fullness.
Fat provides energy, flavor, texture, and satisfaction.
Carbohydrates provide energy, and fiber-rich carbohydrate foods can help with fullness and digestion.
Consider the difference between a plain piece of toast for breakfast and toast with eggs, fruit, and avocado.
Or between grabbing a handful of crackers for lunch and eating those crackers alongside chicken, vegetables, and a source of fat.
You don’t need perfectly balanced meals every time you eat.
But if you’re hungry again an hour after lunch, regularly ravenous before dinner, or struggling with intense cravings at night, look at what your earlier meals contained.
Were they substantial enough?
Did they include protein, fat, and carbohydrates?
Have you been eating enough over several days, not just at your most recent meal?
Those questions can be much more useful than another attempt to ignore your appetite.
2. schedule-driven cravings: is it hunger or habit?
Now let’s imagine you’re eating enough and your meals are satisfying.
You might still notice that you want a snack at almost exactly the same time every day.
Maybe you crave something sweet at 3 PM.
Maybe you always open the pantry when you get home from work.
Maybe coffee and a pastry are part of your morning routine.
Our appetite can be influenced by learned schedules and expectations. Over time, certain times of day and transitions become associated with eating.
That doesn’t make the routine bad.
It just means the urge to eat may be influenced by more than your immediate energy needs.
the 3 PM test
Let’s say you want chocolate every weekday around 3 PM.
Ask yourself: does that same craving happen at 3 PM on Saturday?
If you’re hiking, shopping, or spending time with friends, do you still think about chocolate at that exact time?
Maybe you do.
But maybe the craving is much stronger when you’re sitting at your desk, finishing a stressful meeting, and looking for a reason to take a break.
That tells you something.
Perhaps the snack has become your reward for making it through the afternoon.
Perhaps it’s a chance to socialize with coworkers.
Or perhaps it’s simply how you mark the transition between one part of the day and the next.
There’s nothing wrong with keeping that snack if you enjoy it and it works for you.
But if you’re eating automatically without much enjoyment, you might want to experiment.
Could you take a short walk?
Step outside for ten minutes?
Call someone?
Or deliberately enjoy the snack instead of eating it while distracted?
The goal isn’t to eliminate every routine involving food. It’s to recognize when you have a choice.
3. emotional and environmental cravings: what happened right before?
This is probably the category most people think about when they hear the phrase emotional eating.
You want chocolate after a stressful day.
You crave chips when you’re bored.
You smell popcorn at the movie theater and suddenly want some, even though you just finished dinner.
These experiences aren’t necessarily random.
Our brains learn associations between environments, emotions, behaviors, and rewarding experiences.
Food tastes good. It can be comforting. It brings people together. It becomes part of our traditions.
That’s not something we need to eliminate from our lives.
The question is whether food has become an automatic response to a situation or feeling, particularly when that response isn’t actually meeting your needs.
when food becomes your way to unwind
Imagine you’ve had a frustrating day at work.
A project went badly. A coworker was difficult. You’re mentally exhausted.
On the drive home, you start thinking about something salty and crunchy.
Maybe you’ve learned over time that stopping for your favorite snack helps you feel better after a stressful day.
Your brain remembers that association.
That doesn’t mean you’re addicted to the food or that something is wrong with you.
It means a particular experience has become connected to a familiar response.
And once you recognize that pattern, you can ask a better question.
What am I actually looking for right now?
Maybe you’re hungry.
Maybe you want comfort.
Maybe you need to decompress.
Maybe you genuinely want the snack because you enjoy it.
Any of those answers is possible.
food can be enjoyable without being your only coping tool
I don’t want women to believe that eating for pleasure is inherently wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with popcorn at the movies or chocolate after dinner.
But if food has become your only reliable response to stress, boredom, or loneliness, it’s worth developing additional options.
Could spending a few minutes outside help?
Would talking with a friend make a difference?
Would doing something enjoyable give you the break you’re looking for?
And if you still want the chocolate afterward, you can choose to eat it.
The goal is intentional eating, not perfect eating.
how to understand your cravings in three questions
Here’s a simple exercise I encourage you to try over the next week.
When a craving shows up, instead of immediately deciding whether to give in or resist it, spend a minute getting curious.
question 1: what has my nutrition looked like today?
Think back over the last several hours.
When did you last eat?
Was that meal substantial?
Did it contain protein, fat, and carbohydrates?
Have you been eating enough over the last few days?
If breakfast was coffee and lunch was a tiny salad, your evening cravings might have more to do with inadequate nourishment than willpower.
question 2: is this connected to a routine?
Does the craving show up at a predictable time?
Does it happen after work, during your afternoon break, or when you sit down to watch television?
Would you experience the same urge if your schedule were different?
You’re not trying to prove the craving is unnecessary. You’re looking for patterns.
question 3: what happened immediately before the craving?
Where were you?
Who were you with?
What were you doing?
What were you feeling?
Did you see or smell something appealing?
Did you just have a difficult conversation?
Are you looking for nourishment, or is there a particular experience you’re hoping food will provide?
No single question gives you a definitive answer.
And that’s okay.
You’re gathering information that can help you respond more intentionally.
what if all three craving drivers are happening at once?
Let’s put this into a real-life example.
You had a busy morning and barely ate breakfast.
Lunch was small because you were running between meetings.
By 3 PM, you’re genuinely hungry.
That’s the physiological piece.
But 3 PM is also when you usually take your afternoon snack break.
That’s the schedule-driven piece.
Then you walk into the break room and see a plate of homemade cookies.
That’s the environmental piece.
So why do you want the cookies?
Possibly all three reasons.
You don’t need to perfectly categorize the craving before you can do something useful.
Maybe a more substantial lunch would help.
Maybe a consistent afternoon snack would make sense.
Maybe you realize that taking a break is important to you, whether or not food is involved.
And maybe you decide to enjoy a cookie.
The point is that understanding the pattern gives you more options than simply telling yourself to try harder.
why cravings matter when you're trying to lose fat and preserve muscle
This is where I want to connect the cravings conversation to a bigger goal I talk about often: building a body that’s strong, capable, and resilient.
When women ask me how to maintain muscle while losing weight, they’re usually thinking about protein targets, exercise, and calories.
Those things matter.
But I also want them to pay attention to how their nutrition plan affects everyday life.
Are they eating enough to support their activity?
Are their meals satisfying?
Are they recovering from workouts?
Are they constantly thinking about food because they’ve made their calorie intake unnecessarily restrictive?
Those questions deserve attention.
the scale doesn’t tell the whole story
One reason I encourage women to think beyond body weight is that a lower number on the scale doesn’t automatically tell you what you’ve lost.
Weight changes can reflect changes in fat, muscle, water, and other components.
And while people often search for signs of gaining muscle and losing fat, those changes can’t be established from cravings or appetite alone.
Your training performance, strength trends, body measurements, and other information may help you evaluate progress over time, although none is a perfect standalone measure.
If you’re exploring signs of gaining muscle and losing fat, don’t treat the absence of hunger as proof that your plan is working well.
You can have a quieter appetite and still be inadequately nourished.
Likewise, experiencing hunger or cravings doesn’t automatically mean your fat-loss strategy is failing.
strength training needs support from nutrition
I believe strength training for fat loss is valuable because maintaining muscle and physical capability matters, especially as we age.
But your training doesn’t happen in isolation.
Protein matters. Total energy intake matters. Recovery matters.
If you’re regularly struggling to complete workouts, feeling depleted, or noticing intense hunger after long stretches without food, your nutrition deserves a closer look.
A strategy built around how to lose fat and keep muscle should consider what your body needs to preserve, not simply how much you can remove from your meals.
And if strength training for fat loss is already part of your routine, eating satisfying, appropriately sized meals can help support your ability to train consistently.
what glp-1 medications change about food noise
GLP-1 medications have brought a lot of attention to food noise because many people report substantial relief from persistent food-related thoughts.
For someone who’s spent years feeling consumed by cravings, that can be life-changing.
These medications can reduce hunger, increase feelings of fullness, and change the intensity of cravings.
But there’s an important distinction I want you to understand.
Less appetite doesn’t automatically mean your body is getting enough nourishment.
If you’re rarely hungry and eating very small amounts, you may still need to be intentional about getting enough protein, energy, and essential nutrients.
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RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
[00:00:00] Emily Field: Welcome back to the Macros Made Easy podcast. I’m Emily Field, registered dietician, and this is episode 82. Today we’re talking about food noise, cravings, and why I think we’re missing an important part of this conversation, especially with the growing popularity of GLP-1 medications. We’ve heard incredible stories from people who are finally experiencing relief from constantly thinking about food, planning their next meal, or fighting cravings throughout the day.
[00:00:26] Emily Field: And for someone who’s spent years feeling consumed by thoughts about food, I can absolutely understand how life-changing that experience might be. But I wanna challenge the idea that every craving is something we need to silence, because sometimes those cravings are communicating something important about our nutrition, our routines, or even the way we’re responding to stress.
[00:00:47] Emily Field: In today’s episode, I’m breaking down three common drivers of cravings and teaching you how to recognize which ones might be influencing your eating habits so you can respond with something more useful than another attempt at willpower. Before we get into today’s topic, I wanna share something from a former Macros Made Easy student because I think it illustrates exactly what we’re going to be talking about.
[00:01:08] Emily Field: This student came into the course already knowing quite a bit about macro tracking, but she was still struggling with the feeling of being preoccupied with food and unsure how to navigate situations outside of her regular routine. Here’s part of what she shared. “I hated that I felt like I was constantly thinking about food.
[00:01:25] Emily Field: Macros Made Easy has given me the tools to free my mind of always thinking about food.” I love this feedback because what she’s describing is so much bigger than learning how to count protein, fat, and carbohydrates. She’s describing a change in her relationship with food where eating doesn’t require so much constant attention, negotiation, or mental energy.
[00:01:46] Emily Field: And that’s something I want for everyone listening, whether you’re someone who’s naturally experienced pretty manageable hunger and cravings or someone who’s struggled with food preoccupation for years. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love for you to leave a five-star rating or written review wherever you listen.
[00:02:03] Emily Field: Reviews help more women find the show and I really enjoy hearing what you’re learning and applying in your own life. Now let’s get into today’s conversation. I want to start with a distinction that I think has gotten a little lost in the conversation around GLP-1 medications, and that’s the difference between hunger, appetite, cravings, and food noise.
[00:02:23] Emily Field: We’ve started using the phrase food noise to describe almost any thought about food, but these experiences aren’t necessarily interchangeable. Physical hunger is your body’s way of communicating a need for energy. It’s influenced by a complex combination of signals involving your GI tract, your brain, hormones, and your body’s energy availability.
[00:02:45] Emily Field: Appetite is a little broader because it includes your desire to eat, which can exist even when you aren’t experiencing strong physical hunger. And cravings are often more specific. You don’t necessarily want just anything to eat. You want the salty chips, the chocolate, the crackers, or that one specific pastry from your favorite coffee shop Food noise, on the other hand, generally refers to persistent, sometimes intrusive thoughts about food that can feel difficult to turn off.
[00:03:15] Emily Field: For some people, that’s a much more disruptive experience than simply being hungry or wanting a snack. Now, one of the things we’ve learned from people using GLP-1 medications is just how different these experiences can be from person to person. Someone who’s spent years constantly thinking about food might experience a tremendous amount of relief when those thoughts become quieter.
[00:03:37] Emily Field: I don’t want to minimize that experience at all. These medications influence appetite and food-related reward pathways in ways that can be incredibly meaningful. But here’s where I want to add some nuance. Just because you’re thinking about food doesn’t mean something is wrong, and just because you’re craving a particular food doesn’t necessarily mean you need to get better at resisting it.
[00:03:58] Emily Field: Sometimes your body needs nourishment. Sometimes you’ve developed a routine around eating that has very little to do with your current energy needs. And sometimes food has become associated with a particular emotion, environment, or experience. Those are very different situations, and it doesn’t make sense to approach them all with the same strategy.
[00:04:18] Emily Field: In my nutrition coaching practice, I find it useful to categorize cravings into three common drivers: physiological, schedule-driven, and environmental or emotional. These categories aren’t mutually exclusive, and they’re not a formal medical diagnostic tool. In fact, you might experience all three at the same time.
[00:04:37] Emily Field: But they give us a really helpful starting point for understanding why you’re craving something before deciding what to do about it. And I think that’s an important shift because so many women come into nutrition coaching believing their biggest problem is that they just don’t have enough self-control.
[00:04:52] Emily Field: They think that if they could get better at ignoring hunger, saying no to snacks, or avoiding tempting foods, they’d finally be successful. But after working with women on their nutrition for years, I can tell you that the solution is often much more practical than that. So let’s start with a category I think gets overlooked the most.
[00:05:12] Emily Field: Physiological cravings are ones I want you to take especially seriously because they could be rooted in something as straightforward as not eating enough food or not eating in a way that keeps you satisfied. And I think women are particularly vulnerable to overlook this category because so many of us have spent years being encouraged to eat less.
[00:05:30] Emily Field: We’re told to delay breakfast, make lunch light as possible, avoid unnecessary snacks, and save our calories for dinner. And somewhere along the way, we’ve started believing that being able to tolerate hunger is a sign that we’re doing something right, we’re doing nutrition correctly. So when cravings show up, our first instinct is often to figure out how to stop them rather than ask whether we’re actually eating enough.
[00:05:54] Emily Field: Here’s an example I see all the time in coaching. A woman tells me she’s struggling with cravings every evening. She’s pretty disciplined throughout the day. She makes what she considers healthy choices, and she’s usually able to stay on track until dinner. But somewhere around 8:00 PM, she starts wandering into the kitchen looking for something sweet or crunchy.
[00:06:12] Emily Field: She tells me she doesn’t understand why this happens because she’s been so good all day. But when we look at what she’s actually eating, breakfast might be a coffee and a piece of fruit, lunch is a salad with some vegetables, maybe a little chicken and dressing on the side. And then she’s trying to get through the rest of her workday on sheer determination until dinner.
[00:06:32] Emily Field: By the time she finally sits down to eat a substantial meal, she’s spent most of the day running on fumes, and yet she’s interpreting her evening cravings as a lack of discipline. I’m not saying everyone who craves something after dinner is undereating. Plenty of people enjoy dessert even after they’ve eaten adequately throughout the day.
[00:06:50] Emily Field: But if your cravings are intense, persistent, or accompanied by feelings of being completely out of control around food, I want you to consider whether your nutrition is actually meeting your needs. There are two big things I look at here. How much are you eating and what are your meals made of? First, let’s talk about total energy intake because I think this is an enormous blind spot for women who are trying to lose weight.
[00:07:14] Emily Field: I’ve worked with women who are absolutely convinced that they’re eating enough because they’re eating more than 1,200 calories a day. And listen, I’m thrilled that we’re moving away from that idea that every woman needs to eat 1,200 calories a day to lose weight. But that doesn’t automatically mean that 1,500, 1,700, or even 1,900 calories is appropriate for you.
[00:07:33] Emily Field: Your energy needs depend on your body size, activity level, goals, and a number of other individual factors. If you’re strength training several times per week, walking regularly, managing a busy household, and trying to maintain your current weight or lose fat at a reasonable pace, your actual needs might surprise you.
[00:07:52] Emily Field: And when you consistently eat less than your body needs, it can influence your hunger, your energy, your food preoccupation, and the intensity of your cravings. I think this is especially relevant for women who tell me they can eat according to their plan all day, but completely lose control in the evening.
[00:08:09] Emily Field: Sometimes we discover they’re not actually failing at their plan. Their plan is failing to provide enough food. And the solution isn’t another strategy for distracting themselves from hunger. It may be adjusting their calories, distributing their food more evenly throughout the day, or eating more substantial meals The second thing I look at is meal composition, and this is where protein, fat, and carbohydrate approach comes in.
[00:08:33] Emily Field: If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know I’m a huge advocate for understanding macronutrients, not because I think everyone needs to track them forever, but because they give us a practical framework for building meals that support our bodies. Protein plays an important role in fullness and satisfaction in addition to supporting muscle tissue and recovery.
[00:08:52] Emily Field: Fat contributes energy, flavor, texture, and satisfaction to our meals. And carbs provide energy, while fiber rich carb foods can also help us feel fuller and support healthy digestion. When we combine protein, fat, and carbohydrates thoughtfully, we can often create meals that feel much more satisfying than meals that are primarily built around one macro or are simply too small.
[00:09:16] Emily Field: Think about the difference between eating a plain piece of toast for breakfast and having that toast alongside eggs, some fruit, maybe an avocado. Or the difference between grabbing a handful of crackers for lunch and putting together a meal with a protein source, crackers or bread, vegetables, and something containing fat.
[00:09:33] Emily Field: Both examples include foods that you might genuinely enjoy, but the more balanced meals are likely to give you a better combination of energy, nutrients, and satisfaction. And I want to emphasize that this isn’t about making every meal perfectly balanced. It’s about recognizing patterns. If you’re routinely reaching for snacks an hour after lunch, feel ravenous before dinner, or struggling with intense cravings late at night, take a closer look at what your earlier meals contained.
[00:10:01] Emily Field: Maybe you weren’t getting enough protein. Maybe your meals were missing carbohydrates because you’ve been trying to keep them as low as possible. Or maybe the portions were simply too small. These are things you can actually change Here’s a practical exercise. The next time you’re experiencing a strong craving, think back over the last several hours.
[00:10:21] Emily Field: When did you last eat? How substantial was that meal? Did it contain a meaningful source of protein, fat, and carbohydrates? Have you been consistently eating enough over the last several days? And another question I sometimes use with clients, would a regular substantial meal sound appealing right now? So for example, if I offered you chicken, rice, and vegetables, would you be interested in eating that?
[00:10:46] Emily Field: Now, I don’t want you to take this too literally. You can absolutely be physically hungry and still prefer pizza over chicken and rice. But it can be a useful way to start distinguishing between general hunger and the desire for a very specific food. If you’re genuinely hungry, I want you to eat, and if you’re noticing a consistent pattern of intense hunger or cravings, I want you to look beyond the individual moment and evaluate your overall intake.
[00:11:11] Emily Field: One of the easiest ways to do that is to track your nutrition for a short period of time, not as a way to police your choices, but to gather information. And if you’ve never learned how to set your own macro targets and eat to your needs, I have a DIY macros guide that can help you get started. You can DM me with the word guide on Instagram, and I’ll point you toward it.
[00:11:31] Emily Field: Because sometimes the most effective thing you can do to improve cravings isn’t practicing more restraint. It’s actually eating more appropriately for your body Now, I want to move into the second category because not every craving is explained by how much food you’ve eaten. You might be eating a perfectly reasonable amount, your meals may be well-balanced, and you might still find yourself wanting to eat at almost exactly the same time every day, and that’s where our routines come into play.
[00:11:59] Emily Field: Schedule-driven cravings are interesting because they’re often connected to the routines we’ve repeated so many times that they almost happen automatically. Maybe you have coffee and a pastry at 10:00 AM every workday. Maybe you eat lunch at noon because that’s when your coworkers take their break, regardless of whether you’re particularly hungry.
[00:12:16] Emily Field: Or maybe every afternoon around 3:00 PM, you’re starting to look for something sweet, even though you’ve had a substantial lunch a couple hours earlier. One thing we know about appetite is that it’s influenced by learned routines and expectations. Our bodies can begin anticipating food around familiar mealtimes, and certain activities or transitions in our day can become associated with eating.
[00:12:38] Emily Field: So when you find yourself wanting food at a particular time, that desire might be partly influenced by what your body and brain have learned to expect. I think a great example of this is the person who gets home from work and immediately opens the pantry. She’s not necessarily thinking about whether she’s hungry.
[00:12:54] Emily Field: It’s simply part of the transition from work mode to home mode. She takes off her shoes, puts down her bag, opens the pantry, and starts looking around. And if you asked her why she’s eating, she might not have a particularly clear answer. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating at predictable times.
[00:13:10] Emily Field: In fact, having a relatively consistent eating schedule can be incredibly useful, especially if you’re someone who’s prone to accidentally skipping meals. But I want you to recognize when you’re eating because you’re physically hungry versus when you’re responding to a familiar point in your day. And the easiest way to do that is to look for patterns.
[00:13:28] Emily Field: For example, if you experience strong cravings for something sweet at 3:00 PM every weekday, ask yourself whether that same thing happens at 3:00 PM on Saturday or Sunday. If you’re busy hiking, shopping, visiting friends, or doing something you enjoy, do you still experience that craving? Maybe you do, which could suggest a genuine hunger pattern.
[00:13:48] Emily Field: Maybe you don’t, and that tells us your workday might be contributing to the craving. Maybe that afternoon snack is a reward for getting through a difficult meeting. Maybe it’s an excuse to step away from your desk. Maybe it’s a chance to socialize with your coworkers. Or maybe it’s simply the way you’ve always marked the transition between one part of your day and the next I don’t want you to assume that schedule-driven eating is something you need to eliminate.
[00:14:14] Emily Field: Instead, I want you to evaluate whether the routine is serving you. If you genuinely enjoy your afternoon coffee and snack, it fits comfortably into your nutrition needs, and you’re not experiencing any negative consequences from it, there may be absolutely no reason to change it. But if you’re finding yourself eating automatically without much enjoyment or awareness and then wondering why you did it, that’s worth exploring.
[00:14:37] Emily Field: When you notice the urge to eat at a predictable time, ask yourself what you’re actually looking for. Is it nourishment? Is it a break? Is it comfort? Is it something enjoyable to look forward to? Maybe the answer is still food, and that’s perfectly fine, but maybe what you need is 10 minutes away from your computer, a short walk, or a chance to talk to somebody.
[00:14:59] Emily Field: I think one of the biggest benefits of developing awareness around these patterns is that you start having choices. You’re no longer simply responding to the clock. You’re deciding what would actually meet your needs in that moment We’ve talked about cravings that may have physiological roots and cravings that develop around our daily schedules, but there’s another category I think is important to understand because these cravings can show up even when you’re well-fed and your nutrition is otherwise pretty dialed in.
[00:15:25] Emily Field: Sometimes it’s not what your body needs or what time it is, but rather where you are, who you’re with, and what you’re feeling that drives you toward a particular food. And recognizing those patterns can be incredibly useful, especially if you’re taking a GLP-1 medication and noticing that your appetite is changing.
[00:15:43] Emily Field: I wanna talk about how you can recognize these emotional and environmental cues and what to do when you notice them, and we’ll get into that right after this. Okay, let’s pick back up with the third category of cravings, which is environmental and emotional. And I think this is probably the category most people assume they’re experiencing when they talk about food cravings.
[00:16:03] Emily Field: They believe they’re emotional eaters because they want chocolate when they’re stressed, chips when they’re bored, or something sweet at the end of a difficult day. But I want you to understand that these cravings aren’t necessarily random, and they aren’t evidence that something’s wrong with you. Our brains are constantly learning associations between experiences, environments, emotions, and rewards.
[00:16:24] Emily Field: Think about walking into a movie theater. You might have just finished dinner and be completely satisfied, but as soon as you smell popcorn, you suddenly want some. Or maybe you have a tradition for stopping for ice cream after a particular family activity. Over time, that experience becomes associated with the food, and simply being in that environment can create the desire to eat it.
[00:16:45] Emily Field: These are learned associations, and they’re a normal part of how our brains work. Food is rewarding. It tastes good, it brings people together, it can be comforting, and it often becomes part of the routines and traditions that make life enjoyable. I wanna make that point because sometimes the conversation around emotional eating becomes so negative that we forget food is supposed to be pleasurable.
[00:17:07] Emily Field: There’s nothing wrong with enjoying popcorn at the movies or having dessert after dinner. The issue worth exploring is when food becomes your automatic response to emotions or situations in ways that don’t actually serve you Let’s use stress as an example. Imagine you’ve had a really difficult day at work.
[00:17:26] Emily Field: You’ve dealt with a frustrating coworker, and you’re behind on a project. You feel mentally exhausted. On your drive home, you’re starting to think about stopping somewhere to get something salty, crunchy, or sweet. Here’s where I wanna introduce a little bit of biology involved. Our brains have reward systems that help us learn which experiences feel valuable or motivating.
[00:17:47] Emily Field: Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters involved in that process, particularly in motivation, reward prediction, and learning. Highly palatable foods, particularly foods that combine appealing flavors and textures, can become strongly associated with rewarding experiences. Over time, your brain may learn that a particular food is one to feel better after a stressful situation.
[00:18:10] Emily Field: That doesn’t mean that you’re addicted to that food, and it doesn’t mean that your brain is somehow malfunctioning. It means you’ve developed an association between an emotional experience and a behavior that provides some form of relief or pleasure. And if that’s been your default response for years, it makes sense that the urge might show up automatically.
[00:18:29] Emily Field: This is where I sometimes use a question with my coaching clients that sounds a little ridiculous, but it can be surprisingly revealing. If I ask, “If I handed you a plain chicken breast right now, would you eat it?” And usually, when we’re talking about a very specific craving, the answer is no. They don’t want chicken.
[00:18:45] Emily Field: They don’t want a turkey sandwich or a bowl of yogurt. They want chips. They want crackers. They want a pastry. They want a chocolate. Now, I wanna be careful here because this isn’t a foolproof test for physical versus emotional hunger. You can be physically hungry and still have a preference for something delicious.
[00:19:03] Emily Field: What I am trying to get someone to consider is whether they’re looking for nourishment in general or seeking a particular experience from food. If you’ve just eaten dinner, you’re physically comfortable, and the only thing that sounds appealing is the chocolate in your pantry, I want you to get curious about what that chocolate represents.
[00:19:21] Emily Field: Is it something you look forward to at the end of the day? Is it a way of rewarding yourself? Is it something you associate with relaxing on the couch after the kids go to bed? Or is it simply a food you enjoy? Because those are all possibilities, and the answer can help you decide what to do next One of the exercises I like to use with clients is having them think backward from the moment the craving showed up.
[00:19:43] Emily Field: Instead of focusing exclusively on the food they wanted, we look at what happened immediately beforehand. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing? What were you feeling? Maybe you start noticing that every time you have a difficult conversation with a particular person, you want something sweet afterward.
[00:20:00] Emily Field: Or maybe every time you sit down to watch television, you’re automatically starting to look for a snack, even if you weren’t thinking about food five minutes earlier. Once you’ve identified the pattern, you can start asking whether food is actually meeting the need you’re experiencing. If you’re stressed, would a few minutes outside help?
[00:20:17] Emily Field: If you’re bored, is there another activity you would enjoy? If you’re feeling lonely, would connecting with someone make a difference? And sometimes the answer is that you genuinely want food, and you decide to eat it. That’s not a failure. What we’re trying to develop is the ability to recognize the difference between an intentional choice and an automatic response.
[00:20:37] Emily Field: Because f- if food has become your only reliable way to manage stress, boredom, or difficult emotions, I want you to have more tools available. Not because you need to stop enjoying food, but because you deserve more than one way to take care of yourself So now that we’ve talked through these three categories, I wanna bring everything together with a practical exercise you can use next time a craving shows up.
[00:21:02] Emily Field: This is where the information becomes especially useful because knowing the biology behind cravings is interesting, but being able to recognize your own patterns is what helps you make meaningful changes. Here’s what I want you to try over the next week. When you notice a craving, rather than immediately deciding you’re gonna give into it or resist it, I want you to spend a minute getting curious.
[00:21:24] Emily Field: We’re gonna ask three questions. Question one, what has my nutrition looked like today? Start by thinking about your physiological needs. When was the last time you ate? Did that meal contain meaningful protein, fat, and carbohydrates? Have you eaten enough across the day? And then I want you to zoom out beyond just the last couple of hours because sometimes the cravings you’re experiencing in the evening have more to do with how you’ve been eating throughout the day or even the day before.
[00:21:52] Emily Field: If you skipped breakfast, had a small lunch, and then tried to power your afternoon with coffee, don’t be surprised when your appetite catches up with you later. That doesn’t automatically explain every craving, but it’s a really important place to start. Question two, is this connected to a routine? Think about whether the craving is happening at a predictable time or during a familiar transition.
[00:22:15] Emily Field: Does this always happen around 3:00 PM? Do you usually want this food after work? Does the craving show up when you sit down to watch TV or when you finish putting the kids to bed? And if you’ve changed that routine, would the craving still be there? Maybe you’re experiencing genuine hunger at that time, but maybe you’ve developed a habit around eating that’s become fairly automatic.
[00:22:37] Emily Field: Neither answer is right or wrong. We’re simply collecting information. Question number three, what happened immediately before this craving? Consider your environment and your emotions. Did you see or smell something that made you wanna eat? Did you have a stressful conversation, feel disappointed about something, or experience a moment of boredom?
[00:22:58] Emily Field: Are you looking for a particular flavor or texture or does a full meal sound appealing? And if you weren’t able to have the exact food you’re craving, would you still wanna eat something else? Again, none of these questions give us a definitive answer on its own, but together they can help you recognize what’s influencing your desire to eat Here’s something else I want you to understand.
[00:23:19] Emily Field: You can experience all three of these craving drivers at the same time. Let’s say you had a busy morning and you barely ate breakfast. You grabbed something small for lunch because you were running between meetings, and by the time three PM rolls around, you’re pretty under-fueled. That’s the physiological piece.
[00:23:35] Emily Field: But three PM is also the time when you usually step away from your desk and get a snack, so you’ve developed a routine around eating at this time. That’s the schedule-driven piece. Then you walk into the break room and see a plate of cookies that someone brought into the office. That’s the environmental piece.
[00:23:51] Emily Field: So when you find yourself really wanting those cookies, is it because you’re physically hungry? Is it because it’s your usual snack time? Or is it because you’ve just seen something delicious? The answer might be all three, and that’s why I don’t want you getting too caught up in trying to perfectly categorize every craving.
[00:24:07] Emily Field: Instead, I want you to recognize the patterns and consider which changes might actually help. Maybe eating a more substantial lunch would reduce the intensity of your afternoon cravings. Maybe establishing a consistent afternoon snack would help you feel more satisfied until dinner. Or maybe you realize that you’re automatically reaching for food every time you take a break and you’d like to develop some other ways to recharge during your workday.
[00:24:30] Emily Field: These are all practical, useful things to learn about yourself Before we wrap up, I want to bring this back to the GLP-1 conversation because I think this framework is particularly valuable when your appetite is changing. GLP-1 medications can reduce hunger, increase feelings of fullness, and for many people, decrease the intensity of cravings or persistent food-related thoughts.
[00:24:53] Emily Field: But having less appetite doesn’t automatically mean your body is receiving enough nourishment. If you’re consistently eating very small amounts of food because you’re rarely hungry, you may still need to be intentional about meeting your nutritional needs. And while some people experience dramatic reductions in food cravings, others may continue to notice learned habits or emotional associations with eating.
[00:25:16] Emily Field: That’s why I think nutrition education and behavior change remain important regardless of whether you’re using medication. The medication may change your experience of appetite, but it doesn’t automatically teach you how to build satisfying meals, recognize your body’s nutritional needs, or develop new ways to manage stress.
[00:25:33] Emily Field: Those are skills you can learn and practice, and they can continue serving you even as your appetite, medication use, or health goals change over time. I want to leave you with one important idea today. Before you ask how to stop a craving, ask what might be causing it. Because if you’re experiencing strong cravings because you’re not eating enough, the solution isn’t to distract yourself, drink more water, or practice more discipline.
[00:25:58] Emily Field: You need to address your nutrition. If your cravings are rooted in predictable routines, you might benefit from evaluating those patterns and deciding whether they’re serving you. And if your cravings are being driven by your environment or your emotions, developing awareness around those triggers can help you respond with greater intention.
[00:26:16] Emily Field: The point isn’t to never experience cravings again. I don’t think that’s a particularly useful or realistic goal, and I certainly don’t want women to believe that having a desire for food means they’ve somehow failed at managing their appetite. Food is supposed to be enjoyable, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting something just because it tastes good.
[00:26:34] Emily Field: But I do want you to understand that cravings aren’t always random, and they’re not automatically evidence of poor self-control. There’s often something we can learn from them. And when you start approaching your nutrition from a place of curiosity rather than judgment, you have a much better opportunity to make changes that actually address what your body needs.
[00:26:53] Emily Field: So that’s my challenge for you this week. Pay attention to when your cravings show up, what you’ve eaten beforehand, what your schedule looks like, and what’s happening around you. You might be surprised by what you notice. If you found this episode helpful, I’d love for you to share it with someone who’s been struggling with cravings or feeling like they need more willpower around food.
[00:27:13] Emily Field: Thanks so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. I’ll see you in the next one.